ILLINOIS
My Suburban Life
Published: Monday, May 5, 2014
By ED MCMENAMIN – emcmenamin@shawmedia.com
Thousands of pages of documents released April 30 by a Chicago law firm detail decades of sexual abuse by DuPage County priests and the protection they allegedly received from the Diocese of Joliet.
The files of 16 priests accused of abuse, long held confidential by the diocese, were obtained and released by Jeff Anderson and Associates to coincide with five new lawsuits filed by the firm against four offenders.
The documents show a pattern of secrecy from Joliet diocese bishops, who regularly failed to remove or report priests accused of child sexual abuse, instead moving them to new parishes where they would often repeat the behavior.
The suits brought by the firm seek an unspecified settlement for damages suffered by victims in the ’60s, ’70s and early ’80s. They also seek a court order that “[stops] practices that imperil children and requires them to come clean and publicly disclose files of all [priests accused of abuse],” Anderson said Thursday.
The recently released files are a portion of 34 sought by the firm, he said.
Diocese spokesman Ed Flavin said that, in accordance with common business practice, the diocese does not release confidential files of employees, and the 16 files turned over to the firm were done so under court order.
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